Most night blooming tropical waterlilies make babies and tubers
very easily, in fact sometimes to the detriment of the main plant.
Too many plants in the pot, even little ones, can crowd each
other to the point that none achieve much size or bloom well.
This can happen any time in the season and the only answer is
to thin them. N. 'Wood's White Knight' is our example plant and
always "over-pups" several times during our long growing
season.

We lift the pot from the pond and first search for large
tubers. These should be discarded in favor of small tubers since
they rot more easily and usually produce weaker plants. Old crowns
attached to these large tubers should be discarded for the same
reason.

There are hundreds of little plants in this pot and, however
difficult it is, we have to be brutal and remove them. And after
we have given bunches of them to friends and loaded up the local
garden center, the only answer is to throw them out.

Once all the small plants have been removed, we go fishing
for more tubers, taking out most of them. Some of these can be
stored. We really should select just one healthy young plant
for repotting but one of the older ones is blooming so we're
leaving two plants in the pot. These are firmly anchored with
a rock and returned to the pond.